DW BUREAU / Chandigarh Even as the IAS and PCS associations met Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann separately on Monday to lodge their protests against the registration of Vigilance cases against their colleagues, including the 2008-batch IAS Neelima in the alleged PSIEC industrial land scam, the State Vigilance Bureau (VB) stuck to its stand that the FIRs were registered on the basis of prime facie evidence as well as following the due process of law. Sources said VB sleuths have stepped up investigation into the case have collected strong evidence after interrogation of the accused persons and also prepared a list of their properties and assets. The arrested accused persons have divulged several important details that would establish their complicity with political and private persons in causing a huge loss to the state exchequer, they claimed. During the day, a group of over 50 Punjab IAS officers, including one dozen deputy commissioners, met Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to protest against the registration of a VB FIR against Neelima and other public servants, following which the Chief Minister ordered Chief Secretary VK Janjua to immediately check the status as to whether requisite prior approval has been taken or not in the case before registering the FIR against the government servants. "If the requisite permission was not taken, then immediate consequential action warranted under the law may be ensured," said the Chief Minister's order. He asked the CS to submit the Action Taken Report (ATR) by January 10. Earlier, the IAS officers had met the CS and lodged their protest against the Vigilance action. While PCS officers as well as revenue department officers have proceeded on mass leave in protest against the vigilance action against their colleagues, the officials of the Deputy Commissioner offices in Punjab also stopped working from Monday. Several other officers associations are also contemplating joining the protest against the VB. The Chief Minister in his order told the CS that it had come to his notice that in the FIR No 1 of January 5, 2023, registered at the PS VB (Flying Squad-1), Mohali against various public servants, the mandatory prior approval of enquiry under Section 17 A of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 was not taken, as required in the law. He asked the CS to call the relevant office record of the Vigilance Bureau wherein the decision to register the FIR was taken/approved and asked him to submit a proper report in this regard. Mann also directed the CS to issue suitable directions to the Vigilance Bureau not to violate the provisions, as mandated under the law, in future. "A well-defined Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) may also be issued forthwith," the CM's note said. (editor@dailyworld.in)